The Nahamer T450 is the first environmentally sustainable toaster. It is 20% faster and uses half the energy of a standard 900W toaster by having close-proximity low-temperature heating elements. If only one slice of bread it inserted then only one side of the toaster is turned on. It is also designed to be repaired if broken and disassembled at the end of its useful life. The window allows you to monitor the brownness of your toast and the Toast Drop system slides your toast straight onto a plate, ready to be eaten. It also features intuitive browning controls and turns on automatically when the front is closed.

Not only do you get the toast, but you get all of the crumbs that go with it, plus a few extra as the toast smacks against the plate below. Seriously, though, it is an interesting concept, but I can’t see giving up a toaster oven for this.

Like someone else commented that handle looks like it will get pretty hot, but I guess the designer intends the heated coils would be lower temp than a standard toaster. The question is how hot is hot enough to toast bread even at close range? and how long does it take? and during that time how hot does the handle get?
To solve some of the issues you could change the material of the handle to a high temp plastic or silicone handle.
And I am assuming the heat coils are on the back as well.
This isnt the first concept for a close proximity toaster, I remember seeing one on Yanko that had clear glass with “invisible” heating elements built into the glass.
The concept above is a bit easier to prototype. I would like to see that happen.
actually.. does anyone else want to see this prototyped? Maybe I’ll make one myself and let you know how it goes. Head over to my site and contact me and I’ll put you on a list and send you the results. If enough people want this I’ll work on it. Otherwise I’ll work on something else.http://www.prodmod.com

I have worked on a few toasters in my time and there is a fine line between a successful solution and a kitchen fire. This product does have some nice points for further research but there are many issues that will not present themselves until you have a working prototype.

Companies spend a lot of time researching how to make the perfect piece of toast and there are so many finite details that can effect the outcome.

I also agree about the handle getting hot, not to mention all the moving parts around that area could be a possible finger trapping, nightmare, law suit, scenario. All these things have to be considered in order to have a great design.

Designed to be repaired! no way, this would also never happen. most products in this araea are put together with tamper-proof screws for a reason. There would have to be one big disclaimer on the box if you are going to let Joe Public loose on it with a screwdriver.

Aesthetics wise, and please dont take this badly, but this product as is would never get near a kitchen. When designing a product for the mass market you have to consider its surroundings. It is all very well rendering CAD data in white stark spaces but you must see it in real surroundings. The look at the moment is something more akin to being found in a workshop. Look at Modern kitchen architecture and design along side that. Trying to create your own aesthetic for a product that is to be integrated into a specific area is risky and darn hard to pull off.

All that said its a good start. I saw this at New Designers last week and it did catch my eye. Couldn’t find you to let you know my thoughts so I thought I would put them down here.

Thanks for your comments, its really nice to get some helpful advice that is written in a respectful way. A lot of the comments on Yanko are unnecessarily harsh!

I did make some prototypes and actually the main problem I had was that the nichrome wire gets a lot longer and flexible when hot which caused it to short-circuit all over the place!

It certainly does have a number of issues, like the heat of the handle and finger traps, but I’m sure these could be overcome with further development. Plenty of products in the kitchen do have moving parts.

Aesthetically, it was a bit of an experiment. The idea was that eco design does not have to be ‘nice’. There are a lot of curvy, inoffensive eco products out there and I wanted to show that something could look exciting, industrial and even a bit dangerous, white still being environmentally friendly.

Shame I didn’t get to see you at New Designers, it would of been good to have a chat.

I’m looking for work in London at the moment if anyone has any contacts.
My email is design@robpenny.co.uk if anyone would like to get in contact for any reason.

Sustainable? Do you even know what this word means? Green does not automatically equal to sustainability. Sustainability suggests future, or continuation. This toaster is nothing more than a toaster. So how is it “sustainable?”

Have you thought about its material, cost, manufacturing process, target culture that it aims to serve, distribution network, maintenance, disposal and even the possibility of regeneration? If you haven’t considered its entire product life cycle, from birth to death, then please don’t claim that it is sustainable.

firstly, don’t assume I haven’t thought about these issues just because they are not shown on this page.

secondly, I do know a bit about sustainability. I performed a Life Cycle Assessment on an average toaster and found that the vast majority of energy used was in use (as opposed to manufacture, transport, end of life etc.) This was to be the principle focus of the project. Products that use less energy ultimately prolong (or sustain) the life of our planet by reducing emissions. Beyond that I designed the toaster so that it could be easily disassembled and repaired without any fixings (such as screws) or adhesives. Safety and lawsuits are another issue.

thirdly, this is a university project done over a couple of months. It was fairly in-depth but not to the level of being ready for manufacture. No i have not considered the distribution network. that wasn’t part of the project. This is a concept

Hi Rob
take the negative comments with a grain of salt and learn from them. Yeah it would be nice if we can all write respectfully but sometimes the nasty passionate comments help you the most. Most of these slams are very true, but it doesnt mean they can’t be overcome or redesigned. As a product engineer I too can find a lot wrong with designer concepts, but I wouldnt want to live in a world without them. We need you guys to push the envelope and try things that havent been tried before. Personally as an engineer I like to be challenged as I hope most engineers do. We are problem solvers. So if you draw a picture of a product that looks cool and most people think cant be built, it makes me more excited to try to be the first to prove the nay sayers wrong.,
anyway, on technical stuff. You can do some research on nichrome wire. After a few web pages you will see that the wire always elongates with heat (this happens to all metals, but more so with nichrome) and that it is a common problem. You would see that it is addressed in other products like hot wire cutters. There is usually a spring that keeps the wire in tension while it gets hot. You can also get nichrome wire shaped like a coil, maybe those dont move as much, not sure. But the wire is cheap enough to try out.

Also, it is fine to start with a cool design and work out the kinks later, but it doesnt hurt to do some technical research ahead of time to work out the basic kinks. Or ask a product engineer like me, or go on forums. There are a million things to know about in the product design world, You cant know them all. but there are plenty of sites that can help.
Keep up the work!

Your prototype toaster caught my eye as I was browsing through the internet for a toaster that would have the following characteristics:
1. The ability to access and remove all crumbs. (easy to clean).
2. Reliability and evenly browned toast.
3. Easy access to the toast without burning my fingers.

I really like the look of your toaster.
I learned a lot from peoples’ comments here about why it’s unlikely that I would ever find a toaster that is safe AND easy to clean.
(I never put anything on the toast before the toasting yet some crumbs always stick to the bottom of the toaster I have and are always slipping out onto the counter even if I remove and clean the crumb tray regularly.
I’m just an end user not a designer.
But I love simple and streamlined design.